2000 Ford F-350 Experiment
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Joined: Mar 2001
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From: Rochester, NY, USA
2000 Ford F-350 Experiment
You may sometimes wonder just how far gone the paint on a vehicle can be and still be capable of being brought back. I was having just that thought last week as we were working on a 2000 Ford F-350 Super Duty in the shop. (New transmission, ball joints, axel joints, etc.) This truck is part of a fleet that I have pretty much free access to when it comes to detailing and experimenting with new products and processes. We bought this truck used about 6 years ago from another plowing company and it was used to both plow and salt – with a tailgate salter. The truck has only 86,000 miles on it, but it’s been outside 24/7 for 12 years and the combination of the sun, the salt and plowing have pretty much taken their toll on the poor dear.
This got me thinking. The boss had offered to pay me to “detail” (more on that in a minute) every truck in the fleet. That would be 13 trucks, with 10 of them being red F-350s. He didn’t want Barrett-Jackson levels of detailing, but instead wanted the fleet to look “significantly better” without breaking the bank. So we worked out a price which basically limited me to 4 hours per truck – doing the exteriors only. And this bad boy would be the crash test dummy for products and processes.
To save some time, we had the guys wash the truck before I started and my first steps were to clay the absolutely awful surface and mask all of the textured black plastic. I’d show you what the clay looked like, but you’d swear I just took a picture of a Baby Ruth bar. Trust me, it was bad. This is what I then had to figure out what to use for pads and products:
You can read the full story over at The Detailers Café, (http://www.thedetailerscafe.com/smf/...;topicseen#new) but basically I had to sneak up from less aggressive products and pads to something pretty aggressive. That ended up being a Purple Foamed Wool pad on the DeWalt rotary with M105 for some serious correction. Then I went to a microfiber correction pad and more M105 on the PC for more correction, then finally a White LC CCS pad on the Flex with M205 for final polishing. For the LSP I used Poor Boys EXP.
So how did the old girl turn out? As a teaser, here’s a 50 / 50 shot of the right side of the hood.
And here’s some more “after” shots including a closeup:
What I think this proves is that you can have a pretty well hammered finish and still be able to make it look significantly better. All you need is patience, a good selection of products and tools and a willingness to experiment until you find the right combination. A little experience can make a lot of difference too.
This got me thinking. The boss had offered to pay me to “detail” (more on that in a minute) every truck in the fleet. That would be 13 trucks, with 10 of them being red F-350s. He didn’t want Barrett-Jackson levels of detailing, but instead wanted the fleet to look “significantly better” without breaking the bank. So we worked out a price which basically limited me to 4 hours per truck – doing the exteriors only. And this bad boy would be the crash test dummy for products and processes.
To save some time, we had the guys wash the truck before I started and my first steps were to clay the absolutely awful surface and mask all of the textured black plastic. I’d show you what the clay looked like, but you’d swear I just took a picture of a Baby Ruth bar. Trust me, it was bad. This is what I then had to figure out what to use for pads and products:
You can read the full story over at The Detailers Café, (http://www.thedetailerscafe.com/smf/...;topicseen#new) but basically I had to sneak up from less aggressive products and pads to something pretty aggressive. That ended up being a Purple Foamed Wool pad on the DeWalt rotary with M105 for some serious correction. Then I went to a microfiber correction pad and more M105 on the PC for more correction, then finally a White LC CCS pad on the Flex with M205 for final polishing. For the LSP I used Poor Boys EXP.
So how did the old girl turn out? As a teaser, here’s a 50 / 50 shot of the right side of the hood.
And here’s some more “after” shots including a closeup:
What I think this proves is that you can have a pretty well hammered finish and still be able to make it look significantly better. All you need is patience, a good selection of products and tools and a willingness to experiment until you find the right combination. A little experience can make a lot of difference too.
